


Sit Tibi Terra Levis

by TheDarkFlygon



Series: Glass Cannon Blues [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl & Platinum | Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Decisions, Blood and Injury, Gen, Minor Original Character(s), POV Outsider, POV Second Person, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:54:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23134234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkFlygon/pseuds/TheDarkFlygon
Summary: A tourist gets caught up in a mine collapse during a tour gone wrong of a famous landmark. Their interest is peaked by the rabbit hole this suddenly opens under their feet as they get tangled into the consequences of a recent balance-shifting event.
Relationships: Hyouta | Roark & Tougan | Byron, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Glass Cannon Blues [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1657786
Kudos: 10





	Sit Tibi Terra Levis

**Author's Note:**

> This story is brought to you by my edgy brain, overly niche ideas and my Roman epigraphy class. fuckin' yeet.
> 
> STTL is an idea I've had for some time and which absolutely is inspired by templefugate's "Take for Granite". Considering this story is miles ahead from my own, I don't even dare actually putting it as my insp for this lol.  
> Anyway. You may be confused about some elements here and there. They're all carried away from another fic of mine, "Earth Never Stops", which explains why this or that is, y'know, very much not canon. I don't think it's 100% needed to understand STTL, it's just clearer with ENS's events and elements in mind.  
> I've run out of ways to insult myself about my #deep Pokemanz fics so now you just get me not expecting this to be multi-chaptered too. Following in big sister ENS's steps, huh? It'll be shorter for sure, though. I promise there won't be any weird shenanigans with six layers of backstory, this time.  
> I hope it'll be a good read nonetheless hehe.
> 
> and yes. there's a trauma center cameo-ish in there. who do you think i am, someone sane?

The mine is truly something to behold, much more than reading about it would lead you to believe. This visit brings more than visuals onto descriptions you’ve read of this underground complex: it adds the noises of the local wildlife living in harmony with the humans’ responsible exploitation of the buried coil ore, the words of the miners working together, the smells of iron and stone mixing into each other. How lucky are you to have been able to be toured around this marvellous place?

This tour was more than worth your money, you think as you hear your own footsteps and those of your little group walking around the premise with more or less admirative eyes. It helps that your guide is a dashing young man who speaks in a charming accent and a bit of local dialect to swoon at. No, you don’t get what he means sometimes, and at others he may be wrong because the brochure in your hands seems to contradict him in places; but it’s fine, since you’re not here to listen to someone repeat information you may already know, but to put visuals onto words.

Still, you’ve been following him blindly with your little group of five without looking up where you’re supposed to be on the brochure starting to wrinkle in your hands. The mine suddenly sounds awfully calm, as if nobody is here and nobody should be. It doesn’t help that, to come here, the guide had to break a slab of rock inserted into the doorframe. The not quite unfamiliar smell of the forbidden covers the walls as you look around, trying to find the reassuring presence of the workers who have suddenly disappeared.

The only person other than your group and the guide stopping in front of a tunnel lit by a couple lights to briefly mention the fossil excavating activities of the mine is a young woman working on a wall there, a toolbox and a backpack next to her as she methodically digs into the rock with a pickaxe, regularly checking on the state of her site with a careful eye and a delicate hand. She must be a worker there, considering how she’s dressed, in a grey jacket almost too big for her petite figure and a hard hat whose colour almost melts into her hair’s auburn. What a stunning young lady…

A tremble suddenly cuts the guide off, prompting you to turn around and face him. His skin has lost some of its hues as he looks up to the ceiling, eyes darting around until you do the same and quite rapidly spots what’s wrong: there are cracks in the rocks above your heads, bits and pieces crumbling down and almost leaving a stain on your neighbour’s white blouse and grey blazer. From the corner of your eye, you notice the young woman from the tunnel rising to her feet, her expression unreadable from that distance.

You can’t focus on that now, so you try pulling everyone out of the zone of danger, but it’s too late: as you start screaming, telling everyone to run towards the tunnel, the ceiling collapses. Before you know it, your legs run off on their own, adrenaline pumping through your blood at Mach speeds, before your consciousness fades into the distance with a cloud of dust.

_-me?_

You come to what must be only a couple minutes after the kerfuffle. There’s a vigorous shake in your shoulders that spreads through your torso, prompting your eyes to finally pry back open. The first thing they manage to focus on, at long last, is a very unfamiliar face with brown eyes, glasses reflecting what the lighting of what seem to be wall lamps all around you, and someone from your group sitting next to the opposing wall.

“Hey, are you awake?!” A high-pitched, but distinguishably male voice, makes it into your ears.

You have troubles collecting an answer. Your head hurts, your throat itches and you’re overall confused.

“Thank gods you’re awake… Can you hear me?”

You nod.

“Okay, good. With how many persons were you?”

With your fingers, you shakily tell him four… No, five. There’s the dashing young lad too.

“Does it hurt anywhere? Can I leave you here without supervision?

“My head, but that’s it,” you reply, finally finding your voice back. “Is help coming?”

“Yes. Please excuse me,” he says as he rises to his feet, “but some of your group is still trapped near the rubble. Come to me if you need anything.”

Your memories finally come back, aside from how many people you’re supposed to be with. The mine collapsed on you and now you’re left wondering how you’re still alive. There’s no doubt this young man, whom you thought was a girl (you’d feel awkward about it if the situation wasn’t so stressful), is the one who saved you. It can’t have possibly been Janice struggling to keep herself from shivering in front of you, half-awake and half-unconscious. If you could, you’d absolutely give the poor girl a hug and words of comfort.

Instead, as your voice has run dry, you watch him go again, helpless with the inflated ankle you’ve just spotted bulging under your pants, head still feeling a little faint. Your saviour doesn’t seem like he’s doing much better than you do at the moment: he’s limping forward, drops of blood trailing behind him. Come to think of it, when you were staring at him, there was blood running down the side of his face… Poor guy, just trying his best while nobody else seems to be able to help him…

You’ve got nothing better to do than to wait for help, so you watch over him from where you are. His pace is sluggish, bothered by the ankle he’s dragging behind him. Surely he must have gotten trapped in a part of the rubble and that’s how he got injured. And still, even when he’s clearly struggling with his own condition, he’s gone off to help the three missing people out of the rubble. That’s at least worth admiring, even if you can’t help but feel like he shouldn’t be pushing himself so much, although it must be a little too late to tell him about it… It’s not like you can walk up to him to give him a piece of your mind in your state.

He’s helped by a few teammates of his own who push the rubble on the sides while he clutches his left arm with a frustrated hand. He still gets a third member of their group out of there with his two arms, pushing on what must be a nasty twisted ankle. He’s obviously bothered by it, considering how clumsy his movements are from your flawed point of view.

Soon enough, Marie joins the group, leaning again the wall in support but nonetheless walking, mostly safe and sound. She goes to sit next to Janice, who then leans against her. The three of you don’t exchange a single word, as your focus is still on the boy trying to fix everything when he should be taking it easier than any of your group. Marie brushes her hand through the young Janice’s hair.

The two last members of the group come back to you in shambles, but still walking on damaged feet. They look positively terrified, faces distorting in worry and exhaustion. Well, not that you look much better, considering they ask you if you’re fine before sitting on your side of the tunnel, right on the other side of the half-excavated fossil you were watching the boy dig up earlier. You’re only missing the guide, now… You hope he hasn’t gotten too badly injured from the catastrophic events you’ve all been witnesses to. He should be fine, considering you’ve all been saved so far; yet you can’t help but worry.

As if on cue, a powerful voice chimes into the tunnel.

“Is everyone okay?!” The young lad asks, out of breath. Aside from the dirt on his clothing, he looks very much fine. That’s a relief, even if you don’t know how he managed to escape the mine suddenly collapsing on an entire group…

“We’re all good, I think,” Marie responds with an asleep Janice in her arms. “That’s all thanks to this young man,” she continues as she points to the collapsed part of the mine. “Wait, where has he gone?”

The guide turns around without saying a word, before you all spot a now somewhat familiar face leaning against the wall. It’s him, your saviour, a hand pressed against his left arm and a half-open mouth trying to catch its breath. The lamp of his helmet is still turned on, as if he forgot to turn it back off once he was finished, on which you spot a red trail. Under his fingers is trailing some blood.

“So, that’s good then!” The guide says with a fake-sounding laugh. “Thank you very much, young man!”

It doesn’t seem like the “young man” in question is very pleased.

“You were these people’s tour guide, right?” His voice sounds much drier, much lower than when he was shaking your shoulders.

“I indeed was!”

He gets off from the wall with a push, face distorting in pain each time he takes a step. He eventually stops in front of the guide. You profit of the opportunity to study his appearance some more: there is a crack in his glasses, the blood trail on his face has dried, a part of his helmet is damaged and both of his gloves are tainted in crimson. It may be your imagination casting spells on you but you can nonetheless swear he’s paler than before.

There’s a sharp contrast between the clean, barely tired guide and the worn-out, badly injured miner who is staring into the former’s eyes with what you can only describe as anger. The mine collapsing must have disturbed him in his work, of course it’d be at least a little upset about it. Still, it can’t just be this, right? This person doesn’t seem like he’d get this furious over just being interrupted when he went through all this trouble without even asking for your thanks. It’s like you’ve all been saved by an angel today, and yet the angelic voice who was trying to rouse you awake is now much, much more human.

“Then you must know this part of the mine was condemned for a good reason, right?” He says, his voice echoing, teeth gritting.

“It is? Why would they do this, though?”

These are both truth bombs falling right onto your naïve head.

The first is the obvious one: were you in a forbidden area all along? This explains a lot, like the slab the guide had to break to enter or why there was nobody around when the rest of the mine was bustling with life at this hour of the day. This would also explain why the part you were exploring had no light. You really were lucky to come across someone who knew the area enough to save the entire group when normally nobody should be around. An angel, you say, this boy is nothing but an angel…

The second bomb takes more time to land, but when it does, it’s still effective. Your guide didn’t look into much about the mine at all. Or, and it’s even worse (but more farfetched and, as such, less likely), he knew it and brought the entire group down to a dangerous place anyway. Whatever it is, nobody has a reason to be any pleased about it. You’re feeling quite angry yourself, so you can only understand the displeasure featured all over your saviour’s face.

“This area is _dangerous_ , that’s why. We’re right under a swamp, the ground is very unstable above us. There have been collapses like this before. _That’s_ why you don’t bring tourists here!”

His voice sounds more than upset, now. He’s very much angry at their irresponsible guide who, in turn, seems more offended than anything else. For someone who may have gotten an entire group, including a child, killed, he seems to take it as a personal insult. Trustworthy _indeed_ … Still, he does know a lot, for someone his age (he may be older than he looks, truth be told, and it’d make sense for him to then have all of this knowledge).

“But then, what are _you_ doing here?!”

“I have special authorization from the executives themselves to exploit areas forbidden from the public.”

“Yeah, sure, like I’ll believe you. You’re just one of those hoarders who want everything for themselves! Let people enjoy it too!”

The silence between the two is heavy, so much so that you’re tempted to intervein, to at least calm them down. Marie is too busy comforting Janice to be a peacemaker like she’s been for most of your tour throughout the region.

“Who even are you? What tells me you aren’t impersonating a tour guide?” The boy asks, crossing his arms in a wince.

“My name is Albert, and I am a guide from Lumiose, Kalos!” He showed his official card to everyone around, not just his interlocutor, as if he needs to prove something (that’s suspicious to say the least). “And, anyway, I can ask you the same! Who are you, boy?”

The boy rummages through his jacket’s interior pockets for a few moments before putting out a card of his own. He sighs before looking back at the other man.

“I’m nobody but a paleoethology student and the former foreman of Oreburgh Mine. That’s why I’m here to begin with. I was digging something out when the mine collapsed,” he replies, pointing the half-excavated fossil next to you with the tip of his thumb.

Suddenly, this boy who looked so young now seems to have grown up before your eyes, putting onto his shoulders the coat of the grownups. It still looks oversized, like he’s floating in shoes too big for his ankles and a cape too voluminous for his slender figure. Surely he must look younger than his actual age…

“Speaking of which,” the former (wait, _former_?) foreman resumes, “have you researched anything about Oreburgh before coming here?”

The guide sounds offended again, “o-of course I did! Why even question that?!”

“You’d… probably knew who I am, if you did.”

He stumbles backward, knees almost buckling down in a shuddering breath, but he remains somewhat up. The wound on his arm still hasn’t stopped bleeding, so you should do something before it goes awry…

“Would you two please calm down?”

The calm yet stern voice of Marie suddenly enters the field, her arms breaking the tension. Janice remains in the background hugging her knees, but nonetheless stares at the scene. Both men look towards her as she proposes her physical support to the younger one. He politely declines.

“Are you sure you don’t need it, dear? You look like you’re in a lot of pain.”

“N-no, I promise, I’m alright!” His voice sounds fake, forcing on an energy that’s dwindling by the second. “My injuries aren’t as bad as they look.”

“Let me check your arm wound, at least.”

He reluctantly allows her to see it, taking off his fingers from the puddle forming on his skin. Even from where you are, you can see just how damp and deeply tainted his glove has become. Marie carefully manoeuvres over him, delicately taking his arm into her hands.

“That’s a pretty deep gash you’ve gotten there. It doesn’t seem like it’ll stop bleeding anytime soon, even if it should have sometime ago… By chance, are you…”

Before she can finish her sentence, her patient suddenly loses his balance, knees giving in and eyes rolling in the inside of his skull. Your first reaction is to jump to their aid, but your ankle gives you a painful reminder you just can’t do much in your current condition. If only the guide was as good as you thought he was at first glance, he could handle this…

Another rumble gets heard as wings flap towards them. Help has finally arrived.


End file.
